Go Down, Moses!

These March days are full of preparations for an upcoming concert (details above) and once again, I found myself dreaming the music last night. You guessed it - the piece was "Go Down, Moses!" This is one of the selections I am collaborating with Encore Vocal Quartet to perform in 2 weeks' time. In my dream, I seemed to be playing the song from finish to start - a technique sometimes recommended to really know your stuff. To make things even stranger, the music was laid out on a long banquet table...? I didn't think I went to bed hungry, but then dreams come from weird places sometimes.

All dreaming aside, the evening promises to provide great entertainment and hopefully some inspiration to get us through the rest of our long, cold, windy winter in Winnipeg. (Temperature at 8 a.m. today was -27C.) Good thing one of the solo songs I'm playing is "Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen"!

Dreaming in Music 3

Well I just learned something about myself; I dream in music more often than I want to freely admit. (I just checked my previous posts and had to change this to #3 because I've already written about this twice before!) I suppose more accurately, this post should be called "Practising in my Dreams" because that is what I was doing. This actually happened a couple weeks ago before I 'nailed' the rhythm in one particular section of a Mark Hayes piano arrangement I'm working on. In my sleep I went over and over the troublesome part until I felt confident that I really had it.

Many stories have been told about how our subconscious brain works on things while we're sleeping. One I remember, maybe because I like to sew, is the story of the man who was trying to figure out the needle and bobbin technique for the sewing machine. He dreamt the solution to his dilemma.

Oh, by the way, the piece I'm so intent on learning? Sing to the Lord by Robert Sterling. I have so far been unsuccessful in finding the words which I'm guessing are still under copyright. If one of my readers has a source I could look up, please do let me know.

Dreaming in Music... Again

I was dreaming in music again on Saturday night. It wasn't the choir anthem running through my dreams this time, but a piece from a workshop I attended almost a year ago. I got the music package out the other day to refresh my memory on some of the songs we went through and "I Love to Praise Your Name" by Noel Robinson has been firmly (re)planted in my brain! Now, there were other pieces I remember from that workshop, so that led me to wondering why this one seemed unique to me. I think some of it is the chord structure. The song is in G+ but in the second bar there is a B7 chord. It's unexpected and quite enjoyable!

This year, I'll be accompanying at the workshop, New Songs for Worship IV, led by Christine Longhurst. I'm very excited about learning the new music and sharing my love for worship music with others. If you're in the Winnipeg area, consider attending; it will be worth your Saturday morning I am sure!

Dreaming in Music

Last night I was dreaming in music. Sunday's anthem was floating somewhere in my subconscious - maybe in the state of "This music is so glorious, I can't let it go, even when I'm asleep!" I rarely accompany the choir on the organ, but this week I am and maybe that is part of what makes the music so wonderful. It's also the fact that it is written by John Rutter and I've never met a Rutter anthem I didn't like.

"So what is this glorious music?" you may ask. The title is Eternal God, c. 1999 by Collegium Music Publications. I have an edition printed by Hinshaw Music, Inc. All the verses have great lyrics, but a few lines in particular stand out for me.

Eternal God, we give you thanks for music,
Blest gift from heav'n to all your servants here on earth...

and

As we are blest, so may our gift bless others:
May hearts be touched and spirits lifted up anew.

I hope you, my reader, will have an opportunity to hear this piece sometime.